YALLOURN FOOTBALL CLUB 1945-66
50 YEARS AGO~ 1963 GRANT COWLEY
Grant Cowley won the coveted 1963 Best and Fairest Trophy for Yallourn Football Club. Grant was born in New Zealand in 1941. He grew up in Penrose, a suburb of Auckland, on the North Island. As a boy, Grant loved the outdoors and was always happy playing rugby and cricket. (Grant was the captain of his junior Rugby team - Te Papapa).
In 1950, his family migrated to Australia and settled in Quarry Road Yallourn. The ‘Quarry Road Gang’ took an instant shine to the ‘new kid on the block.’ Grant could bowl (an understatement), play football (his rugby skills were an advantage) and he could run ‘like the wind.’
Grant excelled at sport, particularly athletics and football. In 1952, he won a major sprint event, at the combined schools sports day, and for his effort, received an engraved silver cup ~ “LVSAAA Under: 12 Championship 1952.” The cup still has pride of place in Grant’s home.
Grant attended Yallourn Technical School and impressed teachers and students. Grant was a Prefect which said a great deal about his behavior at school and his character. In those days, it was a great honour to be elected as a Prefect and it was a position that was respected throughout school.
Grant’s first game of senior LVFL football for Yallourn was in 1960. Former South Melbourne champion, Jim Dorgan, was Grant’s first coach. Jim had finished third in the 1956 Brownlow Medal and was described as a…‘superb back pocket specialist’ (Holmesby and Main~1998).
Jim played 102 VFL games and also played for Victoria. In 1956, Jim won South Melbourne’s Best & Fairest Award.
In his early games of senior football, Grant played as a half back flanker. However, his pace, endurance and ability to break packs were apparent and it was decided, by the club selectors, to move Grant into the midfield. It was a logical and wise move. As Grant gained experience, he became a very hard hitting midfielder with the stamina to out-run and out-last opponents across one hundred minutes of intense football. (Note: In that era of football, there were no rotations/interchanges as in the modern game.)
Collingwood Football Club took a keen interest in Grant. Phonse Kyne was the Magpie’s coach and with Murray Weideman as the skipper, playing at Victoria Park was an attractive proposition for any young country footballer. Grant gave due consideration to the question of leaving Yallourn and going to the ‘big smoke.’ Finally, he opted to continue work and football in the Valley.
1963 was Grant’s ‘break-out” season and his consistency, attention to physical fitness and hard work were rewarded by winning the club’s Best and Fairest Trophy. In that season, Grant played every game which indicated his resilience and ability to ‘carry injury’.
Other major award winners that season were YFC’s ‘big-hearted’ ruck man Murray French, full back Adrian Sexton and former St Kilda & Victorian representative Neville Linney. John Hutchinson, who had played his first game with the Yallourn in 1953, was the coach in 1963. John had played with Fitzroy (3 match permits) in 1957 and also with the Lions in 1958. {Note: A story regarding John’s football career will be posted on the Virtual Yallourn website later this year}.
It is interesting to read that Alan Steele (Moe) won the Trood-Rodda Medal in 1963. Alan polled 18 votes while Jim Beha (Heyfield) and Ron Beaumont (Stratford) were equal second with 17 votes each. Moe’s coach Don Keyter (South Melbourne 1953-58) actually received the most votes in the count. Don recorded 23 votes but was deemed ‘ineligible to win’ the award. Don had been reported (striking charge) and suspended by the LVFL independent tribunal in July that year.
In 1965, Grant was appointed assistant coach at Yallourn North. Former Trafalgar wingman Lenny Hayes was the coach. Grant starred in the Mid Gippsland Football League that season and was runner–up in the MGFL Best and Fairest with 14 votes. His team mate, Jim Fry, won the award by one vote.
The following season Grant applied for a clearance back to Yallourn. Grant’s performances saw him selected to represent LVFL in the VCFL Championship fixtures against the Alberton and Mornington Peninsula Football Leagues. His inclusion, in such a talented country representative team, was a ‘feather in his cap’. It was a just reward for Grant’s dedication and enthusiasm with YFC. Interleague selection is something of which to be very proud in football. The team included Alan Steele (Trood/Rodda Medallist in 1963), Kevin Coverdale (Trood/Rodda Medal 1961) and triple Rodda/Trood Medallist John Gallus (1968, 69 and 1975). Kevin (Hawthorn) and John (Melbourne) went onto successful AFL careers.
Grant played his last game with Yallourn FC in 1973 and, in all, had played approximately 150 games.
In 1974, Grant was cleared to Newborough FC and played for two seasons before finally ‘hanging up the boots’ at the end of the 1975 season. Dawn (Grant’s wife) recollects his last game vividly…“Grant’s season ended just after three quarter time when he was taken off the field with what turned out to be a broken thumb. After having his left thumb and arm plastered to the elbow, he got home at 9.30 that night, only to return to the hospital a couple of hours later for the birth of his third child.”
There’s no truth in the duty nurse’s report at the Moe Hospital that night read …“Mother and child (Lisa) doing very well. Father in some pain!!!”
A long and distinguished career in Gippsland football had come to an end.
From his first senior game in 1960 until his retirement in 1975, Grant had played with a ‘never-say-die’ attitude and always within the rules of the game. He was a respected and humble member of YFC and in the ‘1963 Annual Report’ he was described as a…“player of exceptional ability.”
No one would dispute that fact.
FOOTNOTES...
In 1965 Grant married Dawn (Davies). Dawn grew up in Newborough, attended Frankston Teachers’ College and taught at Yallourn North State School from 1962 to 1968 inclusive. Dawn is the niece of former Yallourn and Geelong ruckman George Card. George played 46 games with Geelong and returned home to coach Yallourn in 1949. George is the father of ex-Geelong half back Ray Card. (1977-87).
George Card won the Best & Fairest Award in the MGFL in 1950 when coaching Yallourn North FC.
Dawn is a marriage celebrant these days.
Dawn and Grant have lived in Newborough for more than 40 years.
Grant was a member of Yallourn Athletic Club. (See the Virtual Yallourn website.)
Grant also played ‘A’ Grade for Yallourn Cricket Club. He was an opening bowler who generated extreme pace with a powerful shoulder action. Dawn recalls Grant capturing 9 wickets in an innings later in his cricket career.
Grant is a now a member of the Yallourn Bowling Club (now at Monash Road in Newborough). It’s a different style of bowling to the ‘thunderbolts’ that Grant delivered with a Kookaburra ‘four-piece ball’ in earlier days.
Written by Roger Spaull for Virtual Yallourn ~January 2013.
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